New Therapeutics and Vaccines Using Immunoproteomics

The advent of immunoproteomics made possible the identification of highly immunogenic proteins that can be used for vaccine development. Proteins that have the greatest potential for eliciting a protective immune response are collectively referred to as the pathogen s immunome. Immunoproteomics has been utilized to characterize the immu-nome of B. anthracis for the development of a safer and equally efficacious vaccine. The immunoreactive proteins are first identified by using 2DE Western blot analysis in conjunction with mass spectrometry. In B. anthracis, for example, antisera from humans post-infected with anthrax were used to probe Western blots of its various 

tularensis [18] and Shigella flexneri [19]. Once immunoreactive proteins are identified, these proteins are evaluated for their potential as vaccine candidates using a multifaceted algorithm [11]. An overall strategy in proteomics-based vaccine discovery is presented in Fig. 12.2. 

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